Wendy Science: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Eye-Tracking Test Enters into the Running for an Alzheimer’s Screen

One in nine Americans aged 65 and older has Alzheimer's disease, a fatal brain disorder with no cure or effective treatment. Therapy could come in the form of new drugs, but some experts suspect drug trials have failed so far because compounds were tested too late in the disease's progression. By the time people show signs of dementia, their brains have lost neurons. No therapy can revive dead cells, and little can be done to create new ones.

So researchers running trials now seek participants who still pass as cognitively normal but are of decline. These “preclinical” Alzheimer's patients may represent a window of opportunity for therapeutic intervention. How to identify such individuals before they have symptoms presents a challenge, however.

Today most Alzheimer's patients are diagnosed after a detailed medical workup and extensive tests that gauge mental function. Other tests, such as spinal fluid analyses and positron-emission tomography (PET) scans, can detect signs of approaching disease and help pinpoint the preclinical window but are cumbersome or expensive. “There's no cheap, fast, noninvasive test that can identify people at risk of Alzheimer's,” says Brad Dolin, chief technology officer of Neurotrack in Palo Alto, Calif.—a company developing a computerized visual screening test for Alzheimer's.

Unlike other cognitive batteries, the Neurotrack test requires no language or motor skills. Participants view images on a monitor while a camera tracks their eye movements. The test draws on research by co-founder Stuart Zola of Emory University, who studies learning and memory in monkeys. When presented with a pair of images—one novel, the other familiar—primates fixate longer on the novel one. But if the hippocampus is damaged, as it is in people with Alzheimer's, the subject does not show a clear preference for the novel images.

The findings seem to hold in people. In a study published in 2013, Zola and his colleagues gave the half-hour test to 92 seniors. Scores predicted who would develop Alzheimer's three years in advance. The company has since developed a five-minute Web-based test that uses webcams and is launching a three-year study of the test with up to 3,000 seniors in Shanghai this winter. Additional studies in the U.S. will evaluate the tool alongside PET and other measures for preclinical Alzheimer's. And a number of pharmaceutical companies will include Neurotrack in clinical trials of Alzheimer's therapies in the next few years, according to Neurotrack's CEO Elli Kaplan. Experts not involved with Neurotrack think it shows promise. The test paradigm has “an excellent base of supporting literature,” says Peter Snyder of Brown University.

Blood tests, retinal scans and computerized cognitive tests are also in the running as simple screens for presymptomatic Alzheimer's. It is unclear which is most accurate, and doctors likely would use several to assess the disease's progression.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Review: Your Brain

Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Ongoing (general admission: children ages three to 11, $14.50; adults, $18.50)

Lights flash as you scramble through a two-story maze of netting. The netting, which represents our neural pathways, lets you experience your brain on a microscopic level: from the perspective of a neurotransmitter passing from a neuron's axon to its dendrite. With each flash, you know that the neuron in which you are clambering has fired.

As you scale this jungle gym—the Franklin Institute's Neural Climb—you are becoming acquainted with the way information travels through the brain. This interactive structure is a highlight of the institute's new permanent exhibit, Your Brain, which opened last June.

Neural Climb is one of a series of displays on how the brain works. Hands-on activities allow visitors to move a model of a brain scanner to view MRI images of the brain and to launch Ping-Pong balls in a demonstration of neurotransmitters rushing from a neuron when it fires. Galleries early on explore the basic elements of the brain—neurons, neural pathways, brain regions and their functions—and later rooms build on this knowledge, focusing on our five senses. In these subsequent galleries, visitors encounter optical illusions; learn how the brain fills in the gaps when, say, a train conductor's announcement gets garbled; and come to understand how something they cannot see can be found—for example, locating a fly by tracking the changing volume of its buzz.

Each interactive experience generally lasts less than five minutes, in keeping with a child's limited attention span. The blurbs on the walls are also short, aiming more to spark curiosity and conversation than to instruct visitors in complex biological phenomena. Yet for those willing to fight the impulse to run from one display to the next, the exhibit can provide a solid foundation of how the brain works.

The final gallery attempts to situate this knowledge in a broader context by exploring neurological enigmas, including the nature of consciousness, and ethical issues, such as those that arise around the science of altering memories. If the exhibit has a flaw, it might be that it conveys the impression of a solved science. In reality, the brain remains one of the greatest mysteries known to humankind—one that will require the brightest minds of the next generation to crack.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Every Life Has Equal Value (Part 2): @gatesfoundation CEO Susan Desmond-Hellmann w @sciam Editor-in-Chief @mdichristina, Sci Talk podcast

Gates Foundation CEO Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann and Scientific American Editor-in-Chief Mariette DiChristina talk about the Foundation set forth in its recently released annual letter. Part 2 of... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Every Life Has Equal Value (Part 1): @gatesfoundation CEO Susan Desmond-Hellmann w @sciam Editor-in-Chief @mdichristina, Sci Talk podcast

Regular Walking Can Help Ease Depression

By Janice Neumann (Reuters Health) - Moderate-intensity exercise, or even just walking, can improve quality of life for depressed middle-aged women, a large Australian study suggests.

January 30, 2015

By Janice Neumann

(Reuters Health) - Moderate-intensity exercise, or even just walking, can improve quality of life for depressed middle-aged women, a large Australian study suggests.

Women who averaged 150 minutes of moderate exercise (golf, tennis, aerobics classes, swimming, or line-dancing) or 200 minutes of walking every week had more energy, socialized more, felt better emotionally, and weren't as limited by their depression when researchers followed up after three years.

They also had less pain and did better physically, although the psychological benefit was greater.

With depression so prevalent, "there is an urgent need" to identify treatments, including non-medical options that people can do themselves, said Kristiann Heesch, who led the study.

Heesch, senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, and her colleagues point out in a January 13 online article in the that depression is expected to be the second-leading cause of global disease by 2030 and the leading cause in high-income countries.

One in 10 U.S. adults suffers from depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women are 70% more likely to be depressed at some point in their lives than men, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

In previous research, Heesch found that exercise and walking could boost physical and emotional health in women who are not depressed.

In fact, Heesch said in an email, physical activity may have an even greater effect on psychological health-related quality of life in women in their 50s and 60s who are depressed.

Her team analyzed data on 1,904 women born in 1946-1951 who answered questions about their exercise habits, physical health, and mental health in 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2010. In 2001, all of them had reported at least 10 depressive symptoms, indicating mild to moderate depression.

But over time, their physical health, mental health, pain, physical functioning, vitality, and social functioning all improved when they did 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity or 200 minutes of walking in an average week.

More exercise was linked to greater improvements, but even low amounts of exercise had benefits.

"The good news is that while the most benefits require 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity or 200 minutes of walking, even smaller amounts . . . can improve well-being," Heesch said.

Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, who holds the Betty Jo Hay Distinguished Chair in Mental Health at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said the study had some major strengths, including its large number of women, their physical and psychological improvements over time, and the estimate of how much exercise was needed to improve quality of life.

Trivedi, who was not involved in the study, also noted that it focused on women at "the very age where risks (for depression) are high."

"It does improve quality of life. That is not a new finding, but there remains skepticism in the culture that walking really does anything for depression or vitality - and this shows that it does," said Trivedi.

He noted that the benefits in the study were much stronger in the immediate future than in the long run, and that being consistently and vigorously active proved most beneficial.

These days, "more and more of these larger prospective studies are beginning to show that people with depression benefit from this," he said.

But, Trivedi noted, more research should be done on how much exercise is needed to lift depression. He said research could become more objective by using new technology, such as iPhones, to monitor physical activity instead of relying on self-reports.

"My speculation is that those women who did not see the benefit probably stopped or reduced their activity . . . it may be those are the women who need a more vigorous exercise to benefit," Trivedi said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Cdrh5o

Am J Prevent Med 2015.

Book Review: The Powerhouse

The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the WorldViking, 2015 (($28.95))

Why didn't electric cars win the race for vehicular dominance at the beginning of the 20th century? After all, they were cleaner and easier to use than cars burning gasoline. The answer, in a word, is batteries. Now, in the early years of the 21st century, the electric car is making a comeback of sorts, but the challenge remains the same—how to get more juice out of battery chemistry. Journalist LeVine examines the race to develop a better battery at Argonne National Laboratory and provides a history of battery design in recent decades. With the pace, if not quite the payoff, of a thriller, he also reveals how the very human foibles of scientists and entrepreneurs, as well as fundamental physics and chemistry, stand in the way of such efforts, which, if successful, could result in a new global industry and attendant jobs.

Senators Vote in Circles about Global Warming and the Keystone XL Pipeline

"United States Capitol - west front" by Architect of the Capitol - aoc.gov.

The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 62 to 36 to build the controversial that would bring oil from tar sands in Canada down through the U.S. are one of the dirtiest forms of oil and expansion of their use would ensure too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, helping climate change wreak even more havoc. Yet this prospect is exactly what many of the same Senators who approved the pipeline voted to avoid, philosophically at least, just last week. How can that be? And who are these legislators? Let’s go the Venn diagram.

A cavalcade of votes occurred in the last few weeks. First, the U.S. Senate voted 98 to one that and is happening now. A bit later, however, the Senate split 50-49 in favor of the proposition that (though that fell 10 votes short of the 60 needed to ensure the amendment was included in the final bill) as shown in yellow. And yesterday 62 Senators , shown in blue. So that means that 14 senators, depicted in green are in a bit of a muddle.

Fourteen senators found it intellectually consistent to vote in favor of the proposition that humans contribute to climate change and to build another oil pipeline.

This group of senators both voted in favor of the proposition that humans are , mostly by burning fossil fuels. And yet they also approved massive new infrastructure to ensure that the continued reliance on fossil fuels should by all means go forward, even if that locks in future pollution.

Those 14 Senators are:

Alexander (R-TN)Bennet (D-CO)Casey (D-PA)Donnelly (D-IN)Heitkamp (D-ND)Manchin (D-WV)Tester (D-MT)

In their defense, pipelines like Keystone XL are the , at least compared to carrying it by rail car, truck or barge. And if Keystone is not built, (along with those trains, trucks and barges) may carry some of the load, though with low oil prices the economically speaking. But it remains hard to see how one squares the circle of believing that climate change is human-made and believing that no action is necessary to .

Still, the Senate has made some progress on the issue of climate change it appears. Only one U.S. Senator still thinks climate change is a hoax—and no, it’s not the Senator who wrote a book by the title “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.” Instead of uber-denier (and chair of the Senate’s ) , it was Mississippi’s Roger Wicker who does not believe “.”

Wicker thinks climate change is a hoax, and therefore he thinks that humans cannot be significantly contributing to it, along with 48 of his fellow Senators. At least he is consistent.

Rarely Seen Saharan Cheetah Revealed in Incredible Photos

It’s not easy to get a glimpse of the critically endangered Saharan cheetah (), the rarest of the six cheetah subspecies. Only about 200 to 250 of these nocturnal cats are thought to survive in remote pockets of Algeria, Niger, Togo, Mali, Benin and Burkina Faso, making them the rarest—and at the same time the most widely distributed—large predator on the planet.

But now a team of scientists working in Algeria has managed to capture not just an image of a single Saharan cheetah, but more than two dozen. In the process, the team has gathered the first real scientific information about these big cats.

“This is the first time we have been able to collect scientific data on the rare Saharan cheetah, as in the past we have had to rely on anecdotes and guesswork,” lead author Farid Belbachir from Laboratoire d’Ecologie et Environnement, Université de Béjaïa, Algeria, said in a prepared statement. “We hope that this important carnivore does not follow the path to extinction like other Algerian desert species such as the addax antelope and dama gazelle.”

The research team—which included scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Zoological Society of London and other institutions—spent several months in Algeria in 2008 and 2010. There, they set up hundreds of camera traps which together operated a total of 5,229 days. During that time the cameras recorded a grand total of 32 photos of seven different cheetahs, each of which could be identified by its size and unique markings. Saharan cheetahs have paler, shorter fur than their savannah cousins, as well as smaller heads and thinner bodies.

All but two of the photos were captured after sunset and in the twilight hours before sunrise, which supported previous assumptions that the cats operate nocturnally.

The photos also revealed clues about the animals’ territory. The same cheetahs were photographed by different cameras up to 44.9 kilometers away from each other, indicating that the cats use an incredibly broad stretch of habitat. Although some images captured more than one cheetah at a time, they mostly live far away from each other. The researchers estimate that they live at lower densities than any other African carnivore.

The Saharan desert is not exactly rich with food or water for big cats, so they need wide ranges in order to hunt. This also explains their nocturnal behavior: it would be too hot to hunt and travel over such large distances during the day.

The researchers used the photographs to estimate that the cheetahs in Algeria have a home range of 1,583 square kilometers. Keeping them safe from humans would require even more space, between 9,000 and 19,000 square kilometers, depending on how much of a buffer zone could be created. The Sahara Conservation Fund posited several years ago that the cheetahs if they started preying on livestock or other domesticated animals, which could result in the retaliatory use of poison to wipe them out. Night hunting with spotlights already threatens the other wildlife in the region and is responsible for the eradication of the two ungulate species, the addax antelope and dama gazelle, which Belbachir mentioned.

All of this has an end-point. The researchers wrote that using the Saharan cheetah as a “flagship species” could provide incentive to conserve their entire ecosystem.

Their research was published this week in the journal

Fan-mail Friday

Over the summer, I decided it would be fun to look back through all the mail kids sent me during the 2014-2015 school year. I've picked out some of my favorites and will be posting one every Friday. They truly are inspiring.

Vertical Gardens Beat Soil Made Salty by Climate Change

Saltwater is shrinking Bangladesh’s arable land, but a simple approach of planting crops in containers shows surprising success

January 30, 2015 | |

KHULNA, BANGLADESH—The soil in Knolkhol village in southwest Bangladesh has become increasingly salty because of incursions of seawater. The situation became particularly acute in the in 2009, which brought storm surges that and flooded farmland. After 2009 vegetable crops planted in the ground there yielded only meager returns—if they didn’t fail completely.

But for the past three years hundreds of villagers have enjoyed the bounty of so-called vertical gardens—essentially crops grown in a variety of containers in backyards and on the rooftops of their humble homes. Despite their modest size, these gardens produce quite a bit. Shakuri Rani Debnath, a 30-something resident of Knolkhol, says hers generated nearly 200 kilograms of vegetables this summer, including pumpkins, squash, cauliflower, tomatoes, spinach and chili peppers.

As a delta formed by three of Asia’s largest rivers, Bangladesh is naturally prone to flooding and waterlogging. And with most of its land at or below sea level, the country is highly vulnerable to extreme weather exacerbated by . Rising sea levels, storm surges and violent storms have compounded the problem of increasing soil salinity across the country, particularly in coastal areas alongside brackish rivers.

The resulting decline in cultivable land is a pressing concern for Bangladesh, one of the world’s most densely populated countries. (Imagine half the U.S. population living in a space about the size of Iowa.) Bangladesh’s from about 156 million today to around 250 million by 2050. Vertical gardens are one simple way that the rural poor can adapt to climate change and increase food supply using scarce resources. They could complement other, more , such as the cultivation of rice and other hardy crops such as sunflowers. “There is no country with such population density where natural resources are stretched to their very limits,” says Craig Meisner, south Asia regional director and country director for Bangladesh at , an international nonprofit organization headquartered in Malaysia. WorldFish in southern Bangladesh, along with other means of coping with climate change. If adaptation “fails here, it will certainly fail in many other countries,” Meisner remarks. “However, if it succeeds here, it gives hope for the world’s future.”

Vertical gardens work because soil salinity actually fluctuates. Salinity decreases during Bangladesh’s monsoon season from roughly July to October, when about 1.5 meters of rain flushes and dilutes salt from soil. During the hot, dry months, however, the soil loses moisture and the salinity returns, explains Meisner, an agricultural scientist by background. So far, WorldFish is implementing vertical gardens only in Bangladesh, although examples of similar, local designs exist in other parts of the world. In theory, vertical gardens can work in salty soil in any area that gets heavy rainfall.

Working with local nonprofits WorldFish trained about 200 villagers in four districts in saline-affected areas of southwestern Bangladesh to make vertical gardens. Others not in the program have copied their neighbors’ designs after seeing how well they worked. WorldFish plans to expand the program to include 5,000 people over the next two years.

Growing the vertical gardens is a relatively straightforward process. Villagers harvest soil after the rains, around November, and use it later during planting season. They put the soil into containers and mix it with fertilizer made of dried water hyacinth, soil, coconut husks and cow manure. The containers range from plastic rice and concrete sacks to large, specially constructed “towers” made of simple plastic sheets encased by bamboo rings.

To prevent waterlogging, the containers are raised off the ground on bricks and filled with brick chips that improve water circulation and drainage. Small holes are cut into the sides where short-rooted vegetables such as Indian spinach and tomatoes can grow. Long-rooted vegetables such as gourds grow on top. These sacks[stacks?] can produce up to eight kilograms of vegetables in one season with an investment of 100 to 150 taka (about $1.30 to $2) per bag. The tower variety of container measures more than 1.2 meters across and can produce more than 100 kilograms of vegetables. One tower requires an investment of about 900 to 1,000 taka (around $11.50 to $13.00) to buy materials and seeds. WorldFish provides seeds and some materials to villagers in the first year.

CORNUCOPIA: Shobitha Debna of Knolkholout of sacks and onto her roof.

The result is a garden like the one that belongs to Shobitha Debna, a 35-year-old mother in Knolkhol. The garden occupies just a corner of Debna’s dirt yard, yet it yields hundreds of kilograms of pumpkins, gourds, green beans, eggplants, red amaranth, beets, carrots, cauliflower, coriander, cabbage, green chili peppers and spinach each season. In addition the tin roof of Debna’s home harbors a lush tangle of leaves and vines that sprout fat bottle gourds. The vines grow from just a few large, plastic sacks that once held animal feed. Extra food like this goes a long way for the rural poor in Bangladesh, who eke out a living on a few dollars a day.

Debna says she used to grow just one or two kinds of vegetables but now her vertical garden yields a cornucopia that feeds her family. Finding enough fresh water for her garden can be a challenge, she admits. But so far that hasn’t stopped a bounty of vegetables from flourishing in soil that lay fallow not so long ago.

Ebola Likely to Persist in 2015 as Communities Resist Aid

West Africa will be lucky to wipe out Ebola this year, as some locals remain suspicious of aid workers, especially in Guinea, the Red Cross said on Friday

January 30, 2015

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - West Africa will be lucky to wipe out Ebola this year, as the local population remains suspicious of aid workers, especially in Guinea, the Red Cross said on Friday.

The virus is "flaring up" in new areas in the region and not all infections are being reported, said Birte Hald, who leads the Ebola coordination and support unit of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"We are also seeing that in places like Sierra Leone and especially in Guinea that it is flaring up in new districts all the time, with small new chains of transmission, which means that it's not under control and it could flare up big-time again," Hald told a news briefing in Geneva.

"I think that we should consider ourselves lucky and fortunate if we are able to stop it in 2015," she said.

More than 6,000 Red Cross volunteers are deployed in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, tracing contacts of those infected, isolating suspect cases and ensuring safe burials, she said.

But the Red Cross still has "no access" to some communities in Guinea, Hald said. It saw "quite a number of incidents" of backlash in January.

"There are still communities that think, for instance, Ebola is spreading with spraying chlorine, disinfecting of the houses, and it is the Red Cross team that are coming with the chlorine, so they are making that connection," she said.

To de-escalate tensions, the Red Cross is sending police and authorities a day in advance to prepare villages for the arrival of its teams, she said.

"If we don't get full access in Guinea, then we definitely risk that this will become something permanent. If it's permanent in Guinea, then we know also that it will be in the whole region, because there are porous borders," Hald said.

The number of new confirmed Ebola cases totaled 99 in the week to Jan. 25, the lowest tally since June, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, signaling the tide might have turned against the epidemic.. The outbreak has killed 8,810 people out of 22,092 known cases.

Some 27 sub-prefectures in Guinea reported at least one security incident or other form of refusal to cooperate in the week to Jan 21. Two districts in Liberia and four in Sierra Leone reported at least one similar incident, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said on Friday.

The decline in new cases should not lead to complacency, she said: "Because one unsafe burial - only one - can really create a new chain of transmission and cause other cases of Ebola."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Larry King)

Calisthenics for a Child's Mind

See Inside

Scientists have concocted mental fitness regimens to strengthen weak thinking skills in students—in effect, making kids smarter

A mop of light brown hair shakes as a slender nine-year-old boy named Jack bangs furiously at his keyboard. Jack's eyes are fixed on a clock with six hands, which denote the month, day, hour, minute, second and 60th of a second. As soon as he types 10:28:2:14:56:32, a new clock appears, and he hammers out another set of numbers. An affable 14-year-old student named Marti had just taught me the exercise, and I guessed I could have solved one of these clocks in a few minutes. Jack was finishing one every seven seconds.

Jack's incessant clacking is virtually the only sound in this small classroom of eight- and nine-year-olds. The others work silently. One or two wear an eye patch, copying symbols onto grids. A dark-haired girl listens through headphones to a list of words she must memorize and repeat to a teacher. One boy stares at a Norman Rockwell painting; his job is to extract its main idea and write it down.

*You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Can Science Solve the Mystery of “Deflategate”? [Video]

Even with the physics sorted out, questions remain

January 29, 2015 | |

Plenty of professional and Monday-morning scientists have taken to the Web to offer their own analyses of Deflategate.

Physicist Wanted: On Monday a law firm helping the National Football League investigate the New England Patriots for possible cheating brought out the big scientific guns, calling for Columbia University physicists’ help. They needed to determine the extent that the weather conditions at the American Football Conference Championship game on January 18 could have impacted a football’s internal pressure and whether it could be to blame for 11 of 12 Patriots footballs being suspiciously underinflated during their trouncing of the Indiana Colts. Apparently, , but plenty of professional and Monday-morning scientists have taken to the Web to offer their own analyses.The basic facts, of which I’ve been blissfully and willfully unaware until now: During the AFC championship game between the Patriots and the Colts—that determined which team would go on to the Super Bowl, and which the Pats won by a large margin, 45–7—officials found that almost all of the Patriots’ footballs were around two pounds per square inch below the regulation pressure range of 12.5 to 13.5 psi, giving them an unfair advantage. (Side Note: Each team’s quarterback gets to select his own footballs before the game, and different players have different preferences. The pregame inspection process is shown .)The balls somehow dropped in pressure between being checked by the referees and halftime—was it foul play? A who’s who of the hands footballs pass through before and during a game creates an intriguing list of suspects (see this of events), but as those avenues of speculation have tired, the curious public has begun to grapple with the science.First of all, the terminology. People have been fumbling over understanding “pounds” taken off the balls versus “pounds per inch of pressure”—the actual weight difference would have been more like the weight of a dollar bill, according to . Many, , misunderstood the pressure measurement as one of absolute pressure (as if the ball was in a vacuum) rather than gauge pressure, which takes atmospheric pressure into account.But once that was sorted out, the experiments began. According to chemistry’s ideal gas law, reducing the temperature of a gaseous system in a confined space also reduces the pressure of the system—Could nature itself then be the culprit? The basic physics is covered very well in this video by Ainissa Ramirez, materials scientist and co-author of for magazine—plus, she discusses whether a deflated ball would have offered an advantage to start with.

article describes the lengths players would go—kickers especially—to tamper their way to the perfect ball, along with the efforts the NFL takes to curb them.) On the other hand, a deflated ball also . (ESPN’s suggests, however, that there’d be very little difference in game play—the rainy field would have had far more of an effect.)Chad Orzel at a physicist at Union College, stuffed footballs in his freezer and that after a cold night the footballs’ pressure had dropped by two pounds per square inch, just like the Patriots’ balls. Of course, that was from a temperature drop of 78 degrees Fahrenheit. A blogger named Hondo that the temperature on the playing field would have had to make it down to 31 degrees F to cause the change—much colder than it actually was during the game. Even Bill Nye the Science Guy that the temperature alone wouldn’t have been enough, although his contribution was mostly dedicated to ranting about climate change while waiting for footballs to chill.There’s always a chance more variables—wear and tear, rain, friction—could have kept the pressure high in the first measurement or lowered it by the second. And even the most basic details could be overturned——rendering empirical analysis useless. For now the physics has spoken—and we’re not much better off. But a national fixation on possible cheating in sports morphing into one on pounds per square inch, gauge pressure and the ideal gas law? That I can get behind.

What’s Up with “Deflategate”? [Video]

Even with the physics sorted out, questions remain

January 29, 2015 | |

Plenty of professional and Monday-morning scientists have taken to the Web to offer their own analyses of Deflategate.

Does Mathematical Ability Predict Career Success?

See Inside

A study that has tracked students exceptional in math for 40 years checks their accomplishments

Jan 20, 2015 | |

In the early 1970s researchers identified a large sample of U.S. 13-year-olds who were exceptionally talented in math—landing in the top 1 percent of mathematical reasoning scores on SAT tests. Forty years later those wunderkinder are now midcareer and have accomplished even more than expected, according to a recent follow-up survey. Researchers at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College published the update in the December 2014 issue of , writing: “For both males and females, mathematical precocity early in life predicts later creative contributions and leadership in critical occupational roles.”

SOURCE: “LIFE PATHS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF MATHEMATICALLY PRECOCIOUS MALES AND FEMALES FOUR DECADES LATER,” BY DAVID LUBINSKI, CAMILLA P. BENBOW AND HARRISON J. KELL, IN , VOL. 25, NO. 12; DECEMBER 2014

Despite Esteem for Science, Public at Odds with Scientists on Major Issues

Scientists and their work have an important place in every major aspect of American life.

Many hope that advances in science will improve people’s lives and enhance the economy. They are anxious to understand what innovations will disrupt existing daily activities and business routines. Policy arguments about science-related issues have held center stage in the Obama era, starting with the protracted arguments over medical care, insurance and the Affordable Care Act and extending into every cranny of energy and environmental concerns, policies around food, challenges created by digital technology disruptions, and whether educators are preparing today’s K-12 students for a future with greater requirements for science literacy and numeracy.

A released today by the Pew Research Center, based on surveys of the general public and U.S scientists connected with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), finds powerful crosscurrents of the views of the two groups. On one hand, there is esteem and wide support for investments in scientific research:

79% of adults say that science has made life easier for most people and a majority is positive about science’s impact on the quality of health care, food and the environment.

54% of adults consider U.S. scientific achievements either to be the best in the world or above average compared with other industrial countries; 92% of AAAS scientists hold similarly praiseworthy views.

61% of adults say that government investment is essential for scientific progress, while 34% say private investment is enough to ensure scientific progress is made.

On the other hand, there is clear evidence that citizens and scientists often see science-related issues through different lenses. For instance, there is a:

51-percentage point gap between scientists and the public about the safety of eating genetically-modified foods – 88% of AAAS scientists think eating GM food is safe, while just 37% of the public believes that.

42-percentage point gap over the issue of using animals in research – 89% of scientists approve it, while 47% of the public backs the idea.

40-percentage point gap on the question of whether it is safe to eat foods grown with pesticides – 68% of scientists say that, compared with 28% of citizens.

37-percentage point gap over whether climate change is mostly caused by human activity – 87% of scientists say it is, while 50% of the public does.

33-percentage point gap on the question about whether humans have evolved over time – 98% of scientists say this, compared with 65% of the public.

Moreover, both citizens and scientists are less upbeat about the scientific enterprise than they were five years ago. The share of citizens saying U.S. scientific achievements are the best in the world or above average is down 11 points from 65% in 2009 to 54% today. Among scientists there is a 24-point drop from 2009 to 2014 in the proportion who say it is generally a good time for science and an 11-point falloff in those who think it is a good time for their particular science discipline.

Policy-making without the best science?

One of the main points of agreement between scientists and citizens is that both are critical of the quality of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM subjects) in grades K-12. Only 16% of AAAS scientists and 29% of the general public rank U.S. STEM education for grades K -12 as above average or the best in the world. Fully 46% of scientists and 29% of the public rank K-12 STEM as below average. Additionally, 75% of scientists view too little STEM education for grades K-12 to be a major factor in the public’s limited knowledge about science and an overwhelming majority of scientists see the public’s limited scientific knowledge as a problem.

Why the Pew Research Center is studying these issues

There is considerable interest in the policy community, among scientists themselves, and among engaged citizens to understand how the fast-paced world of scientific inquiry and innovation is shaping America and the world. Pew Research Center hopes to explore that and to understand more fully how news and information about scientific activities make their way to citizens, how they understand it, and how, in some circumstances, they contribute to it.

In the coming months we will issue more findings related to the two surveys I have described in this post. One will provide a detailed analysis of the partisan and ideological differences that underlie some of the disputed policy areas. Another will pay particular attention to how people’s spiritual views and practices are tied to these issues. And yet another will look more directly at issues related to Americans’ general knowledge about science phenomena, updating we have done about citizens’ science literacy.

We will examine these and other issues related to a wide range of science topics and disciplines. In addition to surveys of the public, we will survey and interview scientists for this work and we hope to add research projects built around data that is not necessarily survey data – some of it might be “big data” and some might be small.

We at Pew Research Center are excited to expand our research in these areas and are especially anticipating a deeper engagement with the scientific community and interested members of the public. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below and .

version of this post

3-D Printing Poised to Advance Cleaner Cars

It's rare that a gleaming, azure legend on wheels fails to turn heads, but at the Detroit auto show earlier this month, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Shelby Cobra faced stiff competition for attention.

Acura and Ford introduced their new supercars, while other automakers presented next-generation hybrids and electrics. Towering matte military fighting vehicles and shiny trucks vied for the eyes of more than 800,000 attendees.

But in this showcase all about the future of the auto industry, the Oak Ridge Cobra, a throwback to 1967, was a harbinger of things to come.

The polished paint and chrome belied bodywork that came out of a 3-D printer, making the roadster a victim of its own success.

"People would walk by it and say, 'We don't get what's going on,'" said Lonnie Love, group leader for the manufacturing systems group at Oak Ridge.

It wasn't until Love placed a sign on the windshield saying "Yes, it's a 3D printed car" that more people stopped to check it out.

The project was a proof of concept, showing the potential of additive manufacturing in the automotive industry. Rather than milling away a block of metal, a printer creates a component from the bottom up, adding to it layer by layer from a print head.

Using these techniques, automakers can cut development time, shrink the carbon footprint of their production cycle and tailor their vehicles for specific markets.

"We set out to develop technologies that could really push the envelope of a printed vehicle," Love said.

A fraction of the parts, all of the speed

"Literally, you could put a whole new drivetrain in in a couple days," Love said. "The whole car, in terms of manufacture, was extremely cheap." The price tag came out to about $14,000, he added.

Though the Oak Ridge Shelby Cobra traded the throaty rumble of a V-8 for the purr of a 100-kilowatt electric motor, it could still lay rubber, going from zero to 60 mph in less than five seconds. The motor, drivetrain, brakes and wheels came off the shelf.

"It's really exciting what Oak Ridge is doing because it shows us that we can take this to a much larger level," said Ellen Lee, team leader for additive manufacturing research at Ford Motor Co. "It's really beautiful," she said of the Cobra.

Automakers have used additive manufacturing techniques in some form for the past 30 years, but printing was largely limited to one-off parts used only in the design and prototype stage.

"It's really tough today to compete with manufacturing processes like injection molding and stamping," Lee said. Though the machines that produce parts like doors, bumpers and chassis take months to set up and cost millions of dollars, they make components in seconds, which is essential for factories that crank out a half-million cars at a rate of one per minute.

Additive manufacturing, on the other hand, can take hours per part. There are also potential structural problems: Parts are printed in successive layers, so they may withstand stress in one dimension but fracture when bent a certain way.

Shorter production time using less energy

For a large manufacturer like Ford, the value of 3-D printing comes further upstream in designing cars and the tooling needed to manufacture them.

Rather than restructure an entire assembly line, engineers can test fit parts in a limited production run, fix problems and print again.

"By using these technologies in the prototypes phase, you can iterate though designs without changing the tooling," said Harold Sears, an additive manufacturing technical specialist at Ford.

This speeds up the product cycle from something that spans years to a few months, allowing new car designs to hit highways faster.

In addition, instead of competing with molds and stamps, engineers can use 3-D printing to make the tooling itself. Sears explained that much of the tooling used to make car parts for a specific model is milled from steel and aluminum, an expensive, time-consuming, energy-hungry process. For a prototype or a limited production car, this is overkill, and it expands the energy footprint of a production line.

With a 3-D printer, engineers can develop custom tools in hours, designing components with strategically placed internal pockets to reduce weight and the amount of material used, something that's impossible to do with conventional machining processes. Reducing the energy used in production creates a more favorable footprint for clean technologies like electric and fuel-cell cars, shrinking the environmental payback time.

New automakers, however, are looking to take additive manufacturing further. Lawrence Gasman, president of SmarTech Markets Publishing, a 3-D printing research firm, observed that 3-D printing lowers the barriers to entry for automotive suppliers and companies building cars at smaller scales. "It's going to lure more entrepreneurs into the business," he said.

'Microfactories' curbing expenses

Justin Fishkin, chief strategy officer at Local Motors, said his interest came from wanting to build fuel-efficient cars for climate change-conscious island communities.

"I couldn't find any auto manufacturer in the world interested in making 50,000 units," he said. "The volume wasn't big enough for them. It seems like a lot of cars to me, but it didn't move the needle."

Using crowdsourced designs, the company aims to give car buyers more control over their vehicles. Fishkin said he envisions a dealership resembling an Apple store, where a customer comes in, picks the features he or she wants on a computer and then picks up the printed car the next day.

This approach lets the company hedge between different clean technologies. "What we're doing with this digital platform is we're allowing the consumer to choose what fuel they want to run on," Fishkin said.

In a region like the Eastern Seaboard, where electric vehicle chargers are more prevalent, a customer may select an electric drivetrain. In an area with hydrogen stations, a buyer may want a fuel cell. Others may prefer a gasoline hybrid.

Using 3-D printing, Local Motors can accommodate all of these choices without having to build a massive plant for each version. And with a microfactory in every region, the transportation and delivery expenses of a car go down, shrinking its carbon footprint.

When the car is traded in, Local Motors can recycle it and give the customer a credit toward a new vehicle. The company already has factories in Phoenix and Las Vegas, with planned facilities near Washington, D.C., and Knoxville, Tenn.

Earlier this month, President Obama announced that the University of Tennessee would lead the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, a $259 million research consortium, with 122 members, including Oak Ridge, Ford and Local Motors (, Jan. 9). The goal is to produce materials for lighter cars, stiffer wind turbine blades and cheaper gas storage tanks.

As a result, according to Oak Ridge's Love, interest in 3-D printing is growing and the science is rapidly advancing.

"It's a rocket taking off," he said.

www.eenews.net

Your Immune System Is Made, Not Born

New research dispels the belief that the strength of the body’s defense system is genetically programmed

January 29, 2015 | |

Some people seem better than others at fighting the flu, and you might suspect they were born that way. A new study of twins, however, suggests otherwise.

In one of the most comprehensive analyses of immune function performed to date, researchers analyzed blood samples from 105 sets of healthy twins. They measured immune cell populations and their chemical messengers—204 parameters in all—before and after participants received a flu shot. Differences in three fourths of these parameters depended less on genetics than on environmental factors, such as diet and prior infections. Genetics had almost no effect on how well individuals responded to the flu vaccine, judged by antibodies produced against the injected material. And among identical twin siblings, who have the same genome, immune system features differed more strikingly within older twin pairs than in younger sets. The findings, , argue that life habits and experiences shape our body’s defenses more than the DNA passed down from our parents.

Although prior twin studies had hinted that nonheritable factors contribute to some autoimmune disorders, such as , the recent analysis was one of the first to quantify genetic and environmental effects on the general immune system. “We were surprised by the degree of environmental influence on so many components,” says Mark Davis of Stanford University School of Medicine, senior author on the new study.

One finding was particularly striking. A single environmental factor—a past infection with common cytomegalovirus—affected 58 percent of the tested parameters. Whereas the results don’t show whether these changes produce an overall stronger or weaker immune response, they do indicate “cytomegalovirus has a really profound effect,” Davis says. The Epstein–Barr virus, another microbe that frequently infects people, had no such effect.

Cytomegalovirus’s profound influence on the immune system is, perhaps, not so shocking. In order to survive, viruses must hijack a person’s host cells to churn out more viral particles. “They have to get past physical and innate barriers—it is tough to succeed,” says Peter Barry, a biologist who studies cytomegalovirus at the University of California, Davis. “The fact that a virus is still around means it is really good at what it does.”

Indeed, cytomegalovirus has learned to set up shop almost anywhere in the human body. Yet although more than three of five adults have been infected with the microbe, most would not know it. That is because . “It takes a ridiculously large chunk of our immune repertoire to keep this virus in check,” Barry says. Scientists are uncertain as to why the Epstein-Barr virus, which also infects most people and lingers in the body, doesn’t trigger a big ongoing immune response like cytomegalovirus does. It could be that the Epstein-Barr virus primarily infects B cells whereas cytomegalovirus can hide in a variety of cell types. Davis says his team is taking a closer look at Epstein-Barr virus’ effects on the twins’ immune parameters and plans to report the findings soon.

Some researchers think the cytomegalovirus findings could explain why the elderly tend to respond poorly to the flu vaccine. T cells develop in the thymus, but this gland shrinks with age, slowing production of new T cells and leaving us stuck with the ones in circulation. As we get older, a growing proportion of that T-cell pool is used up on cytomegalovirus, with fewer cells available to fight seasonal infections. In the Stanford study, the heightened divergence of immune parameters in older twin pairs lends credence to this theory, Barry says.

But there is also evidence to suggest cytomegalovirus could have benefits. Research in mice shows that . And in a study of monkeys, researchers discovered that .

Based on the new study, it is hard to say if being infected with cytomegalovirus is good or bad for the immune system. Ultimately, it is going to depend on the individual, notes Chris Benedict, an immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California. Infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders are two of our biggest killers. “It’s always a balancing act,” Benedict adds. “The immune system has to respond well to infections but not so robustly that it causes autoimmunity.” For someone with an underactive immune system, cytomegalovirus might rev things up just enough to fend off a harmful pathogen. But if a person’s immune cells hover on the verge of hyperactivity, cytomegalovirus could push the system into danger.

Seeing this microbe singlehandedly shift such a wide range of immune parameters calls for caution in interpreting personal DNA tests that claim to predict one’s risk of a host of diseases from Alzheimer’s to cancer. “Clearly some types of mutations are bad news but sequencing your genome is not going to tell you everything about your health,” Davis says. “There’s a whole dialogue that goes on between your genome and the environment.”

He considers the new findings a key step toward his eventual goal of capturing that cross talk with a benchmark assay that measures the health of a person’s immune defenses at the systems level. “We’ve been working on pieces of the immune system for a long time. But we don’t understand too much about how the whole system fits together,” Davis says. “We now have the tools to begin doing that.”

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

U.S. Forest Service to Designate Routes for Snowmobiles on Public Lands

The rule requires managers of the nation’s nearly 200 forests and grasslands to formally designate where snowmobiles can be operated on the 193 million acres of public land the agency oversees

January 28, 2015

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The U.S. Forest Service adopted a rule on Wednesday that requires managers of the nation’s nearly 200 forests and grasslands to formally designate where snowmobiles can be operated on the 193 million acres of public land the agency oversees.

The rule, which takes effect on Feb. 27, comes after years of legal fights between groups advocating for non-motorized winter sports like cross-country skiing on federal lands and organizations that promote snowmobiling.

At issue in a court battle led by the Idaho-based Winter Wildlands Alliance was whether the Forest Service could continue to let supervisors of national forests and grasslands use discretion to decide whether to officially designate areas that may be used by snowmobiles and other over-snow vehicles.

A U.S. judge in Idaho ruled in 2013 that federal land managers were required to determine where on the country’s vast forests snow machines could travel without harming or destroying natural resources like rivers or wildlife like imperiled Canada lynx that are dependent on undisturbed winter landscapes.

Nearly half of national forests, mostly in Western states like Idaho and Montana where winter snow levels can accommodate over-snow vehicles, already have policies about where such motorized transport can occur, Forest Service officials said.

The Winter Wildlands Alliance, which includes skiers whose sport sees them seek mountain slopes in terrain so remote and rugged it is all but inaccessible, hailed the new policy as a step toward assuring “balance in the backcountry.”

The alliance had complained in legal documents that snowmobilers and others traveling on powerful over-snow vehicles were emitting unwanted noise and fumes in otherwise pristine areas, wreaking havoc on wildlife and destroying trails.

Attorney Paul Turcke, who has represented the Idaho State Snowmobile Association in legal cases, said the new rule was mostly procedural and grandfathered in designations already in place in many forests across the Intermountain West.

He added that future disputes between those who support motorized winter recreation and those who oppose it would likely arise forest by forest as managers mark acreage open to snow machines.

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said the new rule emphasized local control.

“This policy maintains community input and local decision-making so that those with knowledge of local areas can decide how to best balance natural resource issues with legitimate recreational uses of national forest land,” he said in a statement.

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

Record Sea Lion Pup Strandings Reported

Experts worry that this winter may be the worst season ever documented for the marine mammals

January 28, 2015

By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - California sea lions - mainly pups - are turning up stranded and starved on Southern California beaches in record numbers this year, leaving experts worried that this winter may be the worst season ever documented for the marine mammals.

The precise cause is not clear, but scientists believe the sea lions are suffering from a scarcity of natural prey that forces nursing mothers to venture farther out to sea for food, leaving their young behind for longer periods of time.

Experts theorize that this winter's mild El Nino effect, which alters ocean currents and temperatures, may be compounding the shortage of fish that sea lions rely on for food, said Keith Matassa, executive director of the nonprofit Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

That group's pup rescues for the month are already running 20 percent above the same period in 2013, when the National Marine Fisheries Service declared an "unusual mortality event" in which five times the normal number of pups were in need of assistance, Matassa said.

While the majority of the stranded animals this year are less than 1 year old, emaciated adults are also turning up, Matassa said.

Officials at SeaWorld in San Diego and the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro also reported a dramatic increase in the number of sea lions they are rescuing and rehabilitating.

"Our numbers are twice what they were in 2013," said David Bard, operations director of the San Pedro center. "In 2013, we saw an unprecedented number of rescues, it was a record then."

Bard's facility has taken in more than 70 rescued sea lion pups since December, he said, while the Laguna Beach center has taken in 29. SeaWorld has rescued 62 sea lions - juveniles and adults - since Jan. 1, with 15 starved pups coming in during the past three days, rescue team coordinator Jody Westberg said.

It takes six to eight weeks for the pinnipeds to regain enough strength to be returned to the wild.

Inside an enclosure at SeaWorld, about a dozen sleek pups barked and groomed each other on Wednesday, oblivious to the egret that had come to take their food.

"When they came in, they couldn't raise their heads, so to see them start grooming and barking, that means they're feeling much better, much more themselves," SeaWorld veterinarian Dr. Hendrik Rollens said. "They are ready to go back to the wild." (Editing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra Maler)

February Book Reviews Roundup

Charles Townes

As reported almost everywhere, we lost Nobel Laureate Charles Townes at the age of 99. Oh how we we all are standing on the shoulder of this giant in physics.

Zz.

Is Recycling Worth the Effort?

The value of recycling depends on the material in question and whether all hidden costs and benefits go into the analysis. David Biello reports. January 28, 2015 | |

At , discarded metal and plastic gets bulldozed into a large mound. The stuff is then scooped onto the first of a series of rising conveyor belts, from which the trash is sorted through means both mechanical and manual.All that effort produces a variety of salable products, from metals to paper fibers. But ?In the case of an aluminum can the answer is an unqualified yes. Such a be recycled endlessly with no loss of quality. And recycling a can uses less than five percent of the energy that it takes to refine bauxite ore into fresh aluminum. when it comes to all metals, though we're better at recycling aluminum than say . In principle it could work for plastic too. But because plastic is made from petrochemicals, low oil prices can make it cheaper to just dump old plastic and manufacture new. And plastics degrade as they're recycled, as does paper.That said, a simple cost-benefit analysis does not correctly measure the environmental costs of dumping plastics or cutting down more trees for paper products. The EPA suggests that reduces the same amount of greenhouse gas pollution as taking more than 38 million cars off the road.The sound of recycling may prove music to the ears of future generations.—David Biello

Chemists Confirm the Existence of New Type of Bond

See Inside

A “vibrational” chemical bond predicted in the 1980s is demonstrated experimentally

Jan 20, 2015 | |

Chemistry has many laws, one of which is that the rate of a reaction speeds up as temperature rises. So, in 1989, when chemists experimenting at a nuclear accelerator in Vancouver observed that a reaction between bromine and muonium—a hydrogen isotope—slowed down when they increased the temperature, they were flummoxed.

Donald Fleming, a University of British Columbia chemist involved with the experiment, thought that perhaps as bromine and muonium co-mingled, they formed an intermediate structure held together by a “vibrational” bond—a bond that other chemists had posed as a theoretical possibility earlier that decade. In this scenario, the lightweight muonium atom would move rapidly between two heavy bromine atoms, “like a Ping Pong ball bouncing between two bowling balls,” Fleming says. The oscillating atom would briefly hold the two bromine atoms together and reduce the overall energy, and therefore speed, of the reaction. (With a Fleming working on a bond, you could say the atomic interaction is shaken, not stirred.)

At the time of the experiment, the necessary equipment was not available to examine the milliseconds-long reaction closely enough to determine whether such vibrational bonding existed. Over the past 25 years, however, chemists' ability to track subtle changes in energy levels within reactions has greatly improved, so Fleming and his colleagues ran their reaction again three years ago in the nuclear accelerator at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England. Based on calculations from both experiments and the work of collaborating theoretical chemists at Free University of Berlin and Saitama University in Japan, they concluded that muonium and bromine were indeed forming a new type of temporary bond. Its vibrational nature lowered the total energy of the intermediate bromine-muonium structure—thereby explaining why the reaction slowed even though the temperature was rising.

The team reported its results last December in , a publication of the German Chemical Society. The work confirms that vibrational bonds—fleeting though they may be—should be added to the list of known chemical bonds. And although the bromine-muonium reaction was an “ideal” system to verify vibrational bonding, Fleming predicts the phenomenon also occurs in other reactions between heavy and light atoms.

How to Solve the Problem of Antibiotic Resistance

SA Forum

nterviews for the WEF by Katia Moskvitch.

Antibiotics have saved millions of lives—but their misuse and overuse is making them less effective as bacteria develop . Despite scientists’ warnings, antibiotic prescriptions in many countries continue to soar.

Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist based at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge, tells us about the importance of gaining a better understanding of the use and misuse of these wonder drugs.

[]

The world seems to be running out of antibiotics. In middle of the 20th century more than 20 new classes of antibiotics were marketed; since the 1960s only two new classes have reached the market. Why is that the case?

But then it became a law of diminishing returns for the number of new compounds that could be effective. Being able to kill bacteria is not enough; you have to be able to make an antibiotic cheaply, and it has to be safe. So the number of really new compounds diminished and a lot of drug companies were modifying known antibiotics, trying to make them better and more effective.

There have been recent reports of a breakthrough—a new antibiotic that “kills pathogens without detectable resistance.” What do you think of this advance?

The other issue is resistance. In the paper they claim that this antibiotic, because of the way it acts, is unlikely to lead to resistance. But people have said this about many different things before, and eventually resistance seems to develop. I would be a little cautious to say that no resistance will ever develop to anything, because natural selection is very powerful and has a way of defeating even the most powerful tools. Still, it seems very promising.

Researchers are now waging a war against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. What exactly is being done?

But there’s a larger problem—the problem of resistance is also due to an abuse of antibiotics. Many people will go to a doctor and demand an antibiotic when they have a cold or a flu, for which these antibacterial compounds are useless. In many countries it is possible to buy antibiotics over the counter. Often, if people are poor, they will not take the full dose—all of that leads to resistance.

In countries like India people will give you antibiotics prophylactically, as a way to prevent infection. This should only be done in very extreme cases because it’s again spreading resistance.

So is the problem limited mostly to the developing world?

We need better diagnostics, to allow us to very quickly diagnose a bacterium that is causing a particular disease, to then treat it specifically with a narrow spectrum of antibiotics. And finally, there’s a whole issue of better public hygiene.

People now move all over the world, so if resistance emerges in one place it can very quickly spread to other places. So it needs a concerted attack—it is a broad social problem.

Are you confident we can win this war against resistant bacteria?

I would prefer that governments in a worldwide agreement establish certain guidelines for antibiotics use—for public health, for hygiene, for use of antibiotics in the animal industry; and also will promote science—get better diagnostics, better understanding of how bacteria cause disease and for the development of new antibiotics.

What would a world without antibiotics look like?

Are there any alternatives to antibiotics?

—naturally occurring viruses that attack specific bacteria—have sometimes been mentioned as possible tools. Although they were discovered in the early 20th century, their clinical use has so far been limited to some efforts in Russia, [the Republic of] Georgia and Poland. This is partly because they are large biological agents, and delivering the phage to the appropriate target is not as straightforward as administering a small-molecule antibiotic. Phages and bacteria can also mutate, rendering them ineffective. However, it is possible that future research may pave the way for greater use of phages to treat bacterial infections.

Are governments and the public beginning to understand the problem with resistant bacteria and do something about it?

It’s a multipronged approach. Measures like public health and hygiene will take a long time.

Do you think the production of drugs should be funded by governments or by private companies, as it is mostly the case today?

If it’s a good antibiotic, the patient will be cured in a week or two—whereas ideally if you want to make a lot of money from a drug, it should be something the patient has to take all of their life. So antibiotics by their nature are not going to be the same class of moneymaker.

So I think that governments really need to get involved in the development of new antibiotics. They have to think of this as something generally good for society, the same reason that governments fund education, roads, police, defense and so on. This is one case where governments need to act.

Related articles:

New Guideline Endorses Drugs, Surgery to Supplement Lifestyle Change for Obesity

By Megan Brooks

(Reuters Health) - Anti-obesity medications and surgery can be helpful adjuncts to lifestyle change for obese patients who have failed to lose weight with diet and exercise alone, obesity experts say in a new guideline.

The guideline notes that many medications used for comorbid conditions such as diabetes, depression, and other chronic diseases have weight effect and advises clinicians to choose those with favorable weight profiles to help manage obesity, when possible.

"The take-home message is treat obesity first, then treat comorbidities," Dr. Caroline Apovian, of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts, and chair of the guideline task force, told Reuters Health by email.

Pharmacological Management of Obesity: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline is endorsed by the Obesity Society (TOS) and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

The guideline was published online January 15 and will appear in the February 2015 print issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Why now? Dr. Apovian said we are at a "tipping point" with increased recognition that "obesity is a chronic disease that needs to be treated."

Obesity is now recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association (AMA), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) now covers visits for obesity management for a primary care physician, and the obesity medicine certification program is up and running, "and certifying over 200 MDs per year," she noted.

In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved four new anti-obesity drugs in the past two years that can be used in combination with diet and exercise to help people who are obese lose weight. They are bupropion/naltrexone (Contrave), liraglutide (Saxenda), phentermine/topiramate (Qsymia), and lorcaserin (Belviq).

Therefore, "we need guidelines for doctors for use of the medications and for how to treat obesity," Dr. Apovian said.

The guideline says diet, exercise, and behavior change should be part of all obesity management approaches.

As adjunctive therapy when needed, the guideline endorses FDA-approved weight-loss drugs for people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or higher or BMI of least 27 kg/m2 with one or more comorbid conditions. The guideline recommends bariatric surgery at a BMI over 40 kg/m2 or at least 35 kg/m2 with comorbidity.

If a patient responds well to a weight-loss drug and loses at least 5% of their body weight after three months, the medication should be continued, the guideline says. If the medication is not effective or the patient has side effects, the medication should be stopped and an alternative medication or approach considered.

The guideline also encourages "knowledgeable" prescribing of medications for comorbid conditions in obese patients.

Since some diabetes medications are associated with weight gain, people with diabetes who are obese or overweight should be given medications that promote weight loss or have no effect on weight as first- and second-line treatments, the guideline advises. Doctors should discuss medications' potential effects on weight with patients.

It recommends that angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and calcium channel blockers be used as a first-line treatment for hypertension in obese people with type 2 diabetes, as they are less likely to contribute to weight gain than beta-adrenergic blockers, the guideline notes.

Antidepressants, antipsychotic drugs, and medications for treating epilepsy can have an impact on weight, and patients should be fully informed and provided with estimates of each option's anticipated effect on weight, the guideline says. It encourages doctors and patients to engage in a shared decision-making process to evaluate the options.

In patients with uncontrolled hypertension or a history of heart disease, the medications phentermine and diethylpropion should not be used, the guideline says.

The guideline advises against the off-label use of medications approved for other diseases for the sole purpose of producing weight loss, with one caveat. "A trial of such therapy can be attempted in the context of research and by healthcare providers with expertise in weight management dealing with a well-informed patient."

Currently in the U.S., an estimated 34% of adults are overweight, 35% are obese, and roughly 6% are extremely obese. "Weight loss is a pathway to health improvement for patients with obesity-associated risk factors and comorbidities," the guideline writers note.

The authors report no disclosures.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1EpfxPJ

J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2015.

Long-Term Sperm: Shark Gives Birth 4 Years after Contact with Male

The brownbanded bamboo shark’s belated delivery almost doubles the previous record for sperm storage

January 28, 2015 | |

As a group, sharks have unusual and diverse reproductive strategies.

A newborn brownbanded bamboo shark () hatched in the lagoon tank at Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco—almost four years after its mother was last in contact with a male! This finding is almost twice the previous sperm storage record of 843 days for sharks, which was held by the chain catsharks (). has added a new wrinkle to the already complicated field of shark reproductive biology.

As a group, sharks have unusual and diverse reproductive strategies. Unlike many species of bony fish, which reproduce by releasing clouds of egg and sperm into the water, sharks and their cartilaginous relatives employ internal fertilization, as mammals do. Although sharks like the brownbanded bamboo are oviparous (lay eggs), many species are viviparous and give live birth. Still others have a combination of these strategies called ovoviviparity, in which eggs hatch inside the mother’s body. Sand tiger sharks famously demonstrate intrauterine cannibalism, in which one embryo eats all the others and only one pup per uterus is born.

Along with insects, birds and even some mammals, a few species of sharks have been known to exhibit long-term sperm storage, keeping sperm in specialized glands in the body for a long while after copulation, says study author Luiz Rocha, assistant curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences. “The advantages are many; for example, females can store sperm until they have viable eggs ready to be fertilized, eliminating the need to copulate when the female is ovulating. Females can also save the sperm to be used at a time when they can’t find a male, which is what happened here.”

Rocha said that some insect species can store sperm from a few different males and choose which sperm they want to use to reproduce. Sharks can’t choose sperm from among different partners, but multiple paternity has been observed in litters of several shark species. This means that if a female mates with four males, it’s possible that pups fathered by each male can be born in the same litter.

Some species of sharks are also known to demonstrate parthenogenesis, in which the mother gives birth to genetic replicas of herself without involving a male at all. This feat was first discovered when bonnethead sharks () at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha produced newborns, even though the tank held no males. In fact, the California Academy of Sciences research team initially suspected parthenogenesis accounted for the hatching of the brownbanded bamboo shark at the Steinhart Aquarium, until they found the genetic contribution of a second shark in the newborn’s DNA. Because the pup was a genetic combination of the mother and another shark, parthenogenesis could not have occurred, and a male had to have been involved at some point. “This study opens up future questions of when and how shark species use alternate techniques, such as sperm storage and parthenogenesis, to produce offspring in the absence of males,” says lead author Moises Bernal, a PhD candidate at The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute. “Understanding how these mechanisms are triggered is vital for conservation of dwindling shark populations.” Parthenogenesis has to date only been observed in captive sharks but appears to be triggered by the lack of males. If observed in the wild, it could provide further evidence of severely declining shark populations.

Knowledge of shark reproductive strategies is important for devising effective fisheries management policies for these animals. Unlike many species of commercially harvested bony fish—which reach reproductive maturity after a few years and can produce tens or hundreds of thousands of eggs each year—sharks reproduce only relatively late in life and have very few offspring at a time. These traits mean that their populations cannot recover as quickly from overfishing pressure, thereby fishing quotas must be lower than for a similarly sized population of bony fish.

Molecular Clocks Scattered throughout Your Body (Not Just in the Brain) Keep Your Tissues Humming

See Inside

Genes in the liver, pancreas and other tissues (not just the brain) keep the various parts of the body in sync. Timing miscues may lead to diabetes, depression and other illnesses

By and

Anyone who has ever flown east or west at 500 knots for more than a few hours has experienced firsthand what happens when the body's internal clock does not match the time zone in which it finds itself. Up to a week may be needed to get over the resulting jet lag—depending on whether the master clock, which is located deep inside the brain, needs to be advanced or slowed to synchronize when the body and brain want to sleep with when it is dark outside. Over the past several years, however, scientists have learned, much to our surprise, that, in addition to the master clock in the brain, the body depends on multiple regional clocks located in the liver, pancreas and other organs, as well as in the body's fatty tissue. If any one of these peripheral clocks runs out of sync with the master clock, the disarray can set the stage for obesity, diabetes, depression or other complex disorders.

The two of us have dedicated ourselves to exploring the ins and outs of how these peripheral clocks work and to identifying the genes that regulate their activity. The first clock gene was isolated, or cloned, from fruit flies in 1984. One of us (Turek) was part of the team that in 1997 cloned and identified a different clock gene, the first discovered in mammals. As of the last count, researchers around the globe have identified dozens of genes that help the body keep time, including those going by such names as (for period) and (for timeless).

*You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content